Upcoming Changes to Classic Hangouts

Users of classic Hangouts will be transitioned to the new Hangouts Chat in October 2019.

  • 1 February 2019

Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet are the next generation of Hangouts that focus on team communication. Both Hangouts Chat and Meet were enabled for UAlberta G Suite users last summer, and many users have been taking advantage of the new features.

Google has announced that users of classic Hangouts (the original version of Hangouts) will be transitioned to the new Hangouts Chat in October 2019. More notices and details will be communicated prior to October, including a more specific timeline for the transition.

Explore Hangouts Chat

  • New features in Hangouts Chat (available now):
  • Rooms where users can join and leave, and can hold multiple threaded conversations
  • Share documents and files from Drive or computer / mobile device
  • Search for text, people, and rooms, with filtering
  • Rich previews for web links
  • Support for bots, including the ability for third parties to develop bots
  • Apps for Windows and macOS
  • Improved accessibility and compliance

Features coming to Hangouts Chat (coming between April and September 2019):

  • Chatting with users from outside the domain
  • Deep integration with Gmail
  • Enhanced video calling experience
  • Google Voice integration

Learn more about Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet now!

Keep an eye on IST's Google News for updates regarding changes to Classic Hangouts!